Go Google 20 Ways to Reach More Customers

GO

Google

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GO

Google20 Ways to Reach More Customers and Bui ld Revenue

with Google Business Tools

Greg Holden

American Management AssociationNew York Atlanta Brussels Chicago Mexico City San Francisco

Shanghai Tokyo Toronto Washington, D.C.

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Special discounts on bulk quantities of AMACOM books areavailable to corporations, professional associations, and otherorganizations. For details, contact Special Sales Department,AMACOM, a division of American Management Association,1601 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.Tel: 212-903-8316. Fax: 212-903-8083.E-mail: [email protected]: www.amacombooks.org/go/specialsalesTo view all AMACOM titles go to: www.amacombooks.org

This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritativeinformation in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with theunderstanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal,accounting, or other professional service. If legal advice or other expertassistance is required, the services of a competent professional personshould be sought.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Holden, Greg.Go Google : 20 ways to reach more customers and build revenue with Google business tools / Greg Holden.

p. cm.Includes bibliographical references and index.ISBN-13: 9780-814480595ISBN-10: 08144805941. Google. 2. BusinessComputer network resources. 3. Internet marketing. 4. Internet advertising. I. Title.

HD30.37.H648 2008658.872dc22

2007043440 2008 Greg Holden.All rights reserved.Printed in the United States of America.

This publication may not be reproduced,stored in a retrieval system,or transmitted in whole or in part,in any form or by any means, electronic,mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,without the prior written permission of AMACOM,a division of American Management Association,1601 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.

Printing number10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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Contents

P A R T I : Getting Ready to Go Google 1Chapter 1 Learning from Google: A 21st-Century Model for Success 3

Chapter 2 Searching and Finding: Getting Started with Google 13

Chapter 3 Goals for Google-izing Your Business 22

P A R T I I : Using Google to Search and Be Found 33Chapter 4 Improving Google Search Results 35

Chapter 5 Improving Your Visibility with AdWords 45

P A R T I I I : Putting Google to Work for You: Google Apps 63Chapter 6 Collaborating with Google Apps 65

Chapter 7 Working with Docs & Spreadsheets 100

Chapter 8 Working with Google Calendar 138

Chapter 9 Gmail for Your Office 156

Chapter 10 Google Talk 176

Chapter 11 Publishing with Google Page Creator 192

Chapter 12 Boosting Your Bottom Line with AdSense 210

P A R T I V : Communications and Sales Tools 223Chapter 13 Blogging to Improve Marketing and Customer Relations 225

Chapter 14 Gathering Business Data: News, Gadgets, and More 238

Chapter 15 Buying and Selling on Google Base 249

Chapter 16 Improving Catalog Sales 269

Chapter 17 Improving Web Site Performance with Google Analytics 283

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vi CONTENTS

Chapter 18 Organizing Your Business Files 296

Chapter 19 Organizing Your Images with Picasa 305

Chapter 20 Moving Forward: Google Apps Premium, Pack, and More 313

Appendix A 325

Appendix B 331

Appendix C 335

Index 339

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GO

Google

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P A R T IGetting Ready to Go Google

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C H A P T E R 1

Learning from Google:A 21st-Century Model forSuccess

You know what Google is. At least, you think you know Google. Chances are youassociate Google with being among the most successful high-tech businesses in theworld, as well as being the most popular search service on the World Wide Web. Andyou have probably heard google used as a verb, meaning to search for or findsomething online, as in: I Googled my professor and found his home page . . . IGmailed him my report. (Gmail is Googles email service; youll hear quite a bitabout it in the pages that follow.) If thats all you think of when you hear the wordGoogle, youre missing the latest Internet revolution. What you can learn from thisbook will improve your life immeasurably, especially if your goals are to work moreefficiently and to do a better job of marketing yourself or your company.

Whats So Great About Google?

Back in 1996, two graduate students started their own Web-based search service,which they called BackRub. By 1998, the project had gained a lot of attention, se-cured some investors, and turned into a corporation called Googlea Web site thatmade specific Web pages, discussion groups, or even individual words and phraseseasy to locate. In recent years, Google has expanded its services for businesses in adramatic way. Its Gmail and AdWords services are now in widespread use. For exam-ple, Google offers scheduling, word processing, spreadsheet, email, and other applica-tions both separately and as part of an umbrella package called Google Apps. Thesedays, Google is also an increasingly popular solution for small businesses that need

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4 GETTING READY TO GO GOOGLE

to increase their visibility and build their brand. Google is fast becoming the mostaffordable and effective marketing venue for businesses.

Through its expansion into the business services space, Google itself provides youwith a role model that you can follow as you develop your own business online. It allstarts when you create a service that gives you a solid foundation. After a steadystream of customers are knocking at your virtual door, you can expand into newareas. Google can help you make that exciting move.

This book will give you comprehensive descriptions of the sites search engine,advertising, marketing, workflow, and communications features. Not only that, butyoull be provided with tips on how they can best meet your needs. Googles searchtool and other services can help businesses get organized and on the same page,often for little or no cost. The new Google Apps will let businesses take their onlinecommunications and data sharing to a new level. This book will examine ways inwhich businesses like yours can communicate messages and make Web sites morevisible to prospective customers; it will go a step beyond what has previously beensaid about Google to describe how clients and coworkers can use it to communicatewith one another more effectively.

These days, Google is much more than a directory of the Webs contents. Its onthe verge of becoming an integral part of many small business operations. Google isitself a model for a 21st-century business. You can learn a great deal about how asuccessful company operates by reading the sections that follow.

Googling Google: Researching an Internet Success Story

Plenty of books have written about Google and how it started. In a nutshell, thebusiness was founded by two men, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who rst met in late1995 when they were graduate students at the University of Michigan. They spent alot of time and programming effort to come up with a complex algorithm for ndingcontent on the Web with amazing accuracy.

It should come as no surprise that the best way to nd out about Google is toGoogle the company history yourself. If you enter the search terms Google History onthe home page (http://www.google.com), you will see that the rst returned result isa link to Google Corporate Information: Google Milestones (http://www.google.com/corporate/history.html). This will reveal a comprehensive and up-to-date timeline de-tailing the companys achievements. Here you will nd personal anecdotes from andbiographies of Larry and Sergey (who are shown below), as well as a detailed historyof their companys humble beginnings and remarkable growth. Dont be afraid of beingbored. You wont be. Its all told with the straightforward and laid-back style that havebecome synonymous with the name Google.

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5LEARNING FROM GOOGLE: A 21ST-CENTURY MODEL FOR SUCCESS

For more information, you can also scroll down to the bottom of any page on theGoogle website and click on the link labeled About Google (http://www.google.com/about.html). This will take you to a map of all of the products, services, and supportfeatures that Google offers, as well as provide links to more corporate information.

The take away point here is that Google succeeds by providing a service thateveryone wants and needs: access to information and links to virtually any kind ofonline content.

Information Sells

Whats the first lesson you learn from Googles story? Having identified a need thatis shared by each one of the millions of individuals who go online every day, Brinand Page stuck to their core business and kept improving it. They spent many yearsbuilding their company, slowly focusing on the basic activity of searching for contenton the Web. Only when that process became widely accepted did they begin to sell

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ads that would appear alongside search results pages. Only after several years did thecompany go public. Only recently have they begun to provide the business applica-tions described in this book.

When you start up your own Web site, whether or not you use Google, you needto identify your mission and stick to it without trying to take on too much at once.Define the kinds of customers, clients, or visitors you want to reach. Determine howyoure going to meet their needs by making your own products or services availableonline. Start with a few pages or business applications and build your presence gradu-ally. Once you have a firm basea Web site created with Googles Web Page Creator(see Chapter 11), a domain name obtained through Google Apps (Chapter 6), or asales channel created with Google Base (Chapter 15)you can expand your presenceto build a wider audience.

On the Internet, the more prospective customers who can reach and the richerthe level of content you provide, the more effective your business will be. As youlllearn in subsequent chapters, you improve your search engine rankings for both ven-ues when you are able to make links from one Web site you own to another one youown. If your sites have three or four levels of content (in other words, if yourvisitors are able to click through from one page to another and keep finding newforms of information) your site will be stickier. Youll be able to hold those visitorson your site for a longer period of time, which makes it that much more likely theyllperform the action you are hoping forwhether that action is making a purchase,filling out a form, or sending you an email inquiry.

Google gives you a virtual toolbox full of options for creating a Web presencethat is expansive and extensive. It can help you in one of two ways:

If you already have a Web site dedicated to your business or club (or to yourown personal exploits), Google provides you with a set of tools that are sure-fire ways to help you meet your goals. (And you can use Googles Page Cre-ator as described in Chapter 11 to create another Web site, too.)

Google gives you a free and yet powerful way to establish a full-fledged Webpresence if you dont have one already.

Keep It Simple

When you look at the Google home page shown in Figure 1-1, what do you see?Along with the search box and heading and links, your eyes will rest on lots of whitespace. While other Web sites (such as that of Googles competitor Yahoo!) are clut-tered with links, words, images, and corporate logos, Googles remains remarkably

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Figure 1-1. Googles home page points to a model of simplicity you should try to emulate.

uncluttered. No doubt Google could make millions by placing a single ad or two onits well-traveled home page. But the sites managers know the value of simplicity, andyou should appreciate it too.

Theres no doubt about it: You can go ahead and hire Web designers and com-puter programmers to create a complex and world-class Web site that will Wow!everyone who visits it. But chances are you have picked up this book because youwant to avoid just this sort of expense and complication. You want to be in controland plan your online site in a way that reflects your personality and your interests.And you dont want to pay an arm and a legor, unless you sign up for the premiumGoogle Apps service that is aimed at businesses, anything at all. You want to GoGoogle, in other words.

Focus on Your Core Business

Even as it expands to the desktops of individual business users, Google hasnt lostsight of its core business: providing accurate search results. Google doesnt makemoney off the search results by themselves. However, its paid advertising programssuch as AdWords, which place ads alongside search results, have proven to be highlylucrative. Google has found a way to preserve its original mission and maintain thequality of its product for the millions who search the Internet each day. At the same

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time, it enables customers to take advantage of that product by providing advertisingin a targeted way. This system is based on making a decision on how much they willpay each time a visitor clicks on one of their ads.

The lesson for you is to focus on your own core business and establish a base ofoperations on the Web first. Then you can begin to think about branching out intotrying to boost productivity as well as revenue. Suppose you are starting from squareone: you have a Big Idea for an online business and you have identified the targetaudience you want to reach. But thats as far as youve gone so far. You have Internetaccess through your office, your school, or your home. But you need to set up yourown business online. If you only wanted one service to get you started, the logicalfirst choice would be to sign up for email with Googles Gmail serviceemail, afterall, is central to all online communications. But if you want a complete solution, signup for Google Apps and look around at other Google services.

Table 1-1 presents you with a road map for Google services that can help youtake your first step online: establishing a Web site, email, and a domain. Thats allyou need to do to make you or your company visible online.

Once you have a Web presence, you can follow Googles example and start tobranch out. Google can help your companys internal operations by improving collab-oration and workflow among your employees. You can create shared business docu-ments, set up user accounts, and schedule meetings. The Google offerings listed inTable 1-2 are relatively new and exciting in many ways. Thats why they have thepotential to take business away from Microsoft, to mention just one example of othercompanies that develop expensive business applications.

Table 1-1. Step One: Tools for Establishing an Online Presence

What You Need How to Get It Where to Find It

Gmail only Sign up http://mail.google.com

A Web domain, Gmail, Sign up for Google Apps and http://www.google.com/aGoogle Calendar, Web Page buy a domain name forCreator, Google Talk, Docs & $10/yearSpreadsheets

Get out news and updates to Create a blog with Blogger http://www.blogger.comyour customers quickly andfrequently

Make your businesss Add your business to Googlephysical location easier to Mapsfind

Make your Web site more Add Google Gadgetscontent-rich and timely

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Table 1-2. Tools for Working More Efficiently

What You Need How to Get It Where to Find It

Save money on long distance Sign up for Google Talkphone calls by typing orconducting voice chatsessions

Creating group discussions Start your own Google http://groups.google.comGroup

Set appointments, plan Use Google Calendar http://calendar.google.commeetings, and share your (also part of Google Apps)upcoming schedule

Set up a Google search Obtain Google Desktopengine on your own computerto search through your ownfiles or other computers onthe same network

Translating Web pages and Translate with Googletext in a foreign language Toolbar

Get the latest business Google Trendsstatistics and trends

Organize your electronic Use Googles Picasa serviceimage files

British company uses Google to Collaborate

Rock Kitchen Harris (http://www.rkh.co.uk) is an advertising, design, PR, and webagency based in Leicester, England. There are eighteen employees working in the sameofce but, as in any organization, staff people frequently need to work from home orgo on the road. The solution that has worked best for this company is to use Gmail tokeep in touch and Google Apps to share les.

Google Apps has been particularly helpful in allowing some of us to work fromhome and all of us to check our email and schedules wherever we may be, says PaulSculthorpe, Senior Web Developer for the company. Sculthorpe says that aside fromgiving everyone on staff the ability to schedule upcoming meetings with Calendar andshare les, its made his job easier, too. It has taken a big load off our general ITadministration staff. Now we can focus on our real work. The calendar and docs sharingis particularly good.

Email is the primary Google service used by the company. All of our emails arestored at Google. We gure their systems are more resilient and secure than our own

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shoddy solution that failed a few months back. Those using desktop clients still down-load all of their emails too. A desktop client is a program like Outlook Express that isinstalled on your computer and that gathers information from a networked re-sourcein this case, an e-mail server. Googles Gmail service provides an alternativefor those who want to take advantage of it.

Although Googles Docs & Spreadsheets service, which enables a company to pre-pare, edit, and share word processing and spreadsheet les online, isnt as full-featured as, say, Microsoft Word or Excel, as Sculthorpe observes: for simple day today stuff that needs collaboration, its ideal.

Google can also help a business market itself and sell products and services on-line. In this arena, Google is challenging e-commerce hosts like Microsoft and Yahoo!and even the popular marketplace eBay.

Twenty Google Tools for Boosting Your ProductivityGoogle has extended far beyond its core search business to provide a variety of newservices, including free email, Web hosting, and business applications. It only makessense to pay attention to what Google has to offer and take advantage of the servicesthat can help you. Go Google does not attempt to be a comprehensive examinationof all of Googles online services. For one problem, a book like that would be far toolarge to fit on your bookshelf. But more importantly, the book would become obso-lete between the time it is written and when it is delivered from the printer. Thatsbecause Google is constantly expanding its services and acquiring new technologies.

There is also the important matter of your time and energy. The truth is that ifyou look through all of the services and utilities made available by Google (a list thatseems to grow all the time), youll find many more than 20 tools. But in a manner ofspeaking, weve done a significant portion of your work for you. Rather than tryingto cover everything comprehensively, this book has chosen 20 services to describe indetail. Learning to make the most of what these services have to offer can make adifference to anyone wanting to get a new online business off the ground or improvethe reach and success level of an existing small- to medium-size company. Here is alist of 20 of the tools youre likely to find most useful and that are described in thisbooks subsequent chapters:

1. Googles search service. Google indexes and organizes the contents of the Webin a huge database; its this database that you use to search the Web (seeChapter 2).

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2. AdWords. This is a paid search placement program; you create ads and bidon how much youll pay for each click the ad attracts. Each time someoneclicks on your ad, you gain a potential customer or client (see Chapter 5).

3. AdSense. This program enables blog and Web site owners to run targeted adsalongside their content; the content of the ads is intended to complementwhat youve published yourself (see Chapter 12).

4. Google Apps. This service provides you with a domain name (for a one-time$10 fee) and enables you to use a suite of business applications, which multi-ple users can access (see Chapter 6).

5. Google Docs & Spreadsheets. This exciting and easy-to-use service gives you aword processor and a spreadsheet application that you can use and accessfor free (see Chapter 7).

6. Google Calendar. A default calendar is created for you when you sign up forGoogle Apps; you can also create custom calendars and even embed calen-dars in Web pages (see Chapter 8).

7. Gmail. Googles e-mail application comes with lots of storage space and anintegrated chat client to boot (see Chapter 9).

8. Google Talk. Googles chat application lets you send instant messages andeven conduct real-time voice conversations through your computer (seeChapter 10).

9. Google Page Creator. This Web page editing tool lets you create your ownWeb site to go along with your Google Apps domain name (see Chapter 11).

10. Blogger. Googles popular, and free, blogging services lets you create yourown Web-based diary, complete with an index, an archive, and a commentsfeature (see Chapter 13).

11. Checkout, Google Product Search, Catalogs. Im fudging a bit and lumpingthese three separate Google services into a single unit. Each one can helpcommercial businesses sell products online (see Chapter 16).

12. Google Base. A growing number of entrepreneurs are posting merchandise,property, services, jobs, and lots of other things for sale in this Web publish-ing area (see Chapter 15).

13. Google Gadgets. These easy-to-implement bits of Web content can make yourWeb site more valuable and attract more repeat visits (see Chapter 16).

14. Analytics, Trends. These two analytical tools provide you with informationabout visits to your own Web site and trends in Web searches, respectively(see Chapter 17).

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15. Desktop, Toolbar. These two tools help you search more effectively, boththrough files on your own computer and your local network (Desktop) aswell as the wider Internet (Toolbar). See Chapter 18 for more.

16. Picasa. This powerful photo viewing and editing tool automatically organizesall the files on your desktop and lets you edit them as well (see Chapter 19).

17. News, Book Search. These tools provide businesspeople with important up-to-the-minute data they need to keep on top of trends and events (see Chapter19).

18. Google Apps Premium. This corporate version of Google Apps guaranteesnearly 24/7 reliability and gives businesses the ability to write custom pro-grams that interface with Googles services (see Chapter 20).

19. Gmail Mobile and SMS. These tools let busy professionals search Google andexchange messages when theyre on the road (see Chapter 19).

20. Google Pack. This suite of applications will boost the functionality of virtuallyany workstation (see Chapter 20).

Go Google!

In this chapter, you hopefully expanded your vision of what Google has to offer.Rather than just a single page where you enter a search query and get back a page ofresults, Google is a business resource. Its shared applications, email, and other toolscan help small businesses work more efficiently; their marketing and advertising toolscan help companies that are strapped for advertising cash improve their visibility,too. In the chapters to come, youll learn how to take full advantage of Googlescutting-edge tools for working online. Its not an exaggeration to say that Googlesshared applications have the potential to change the way the world works. The endresult is likely to take business away from well-established software vendors like Mi-crosoft, as well as from prominent Web services providers like Yahoo!. Its all aboutoptions: you no longer need to spend hundreds or thousands of dollars on expensiveproductivity programs. You now have the option to Go Googleexplore the resourcesdescribed throughout this book, and youll be glad you did!

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C H A P T E R 2

Searching and Finding: GettingStarted with Google

Everyone you ask about Google has the same response, Its that Web page whereyou search for something. Googles search service is its core business. Its also theactivity that allows many of its other services to work so well. The huge database ofWeb page contents compiled by Google and used to present its search results is alsoused to search your own page and present you with AdSense ads that are relevant toyour particular content. AdWords ads work because they are placed next to Googlesearch results. And specialty search services like Google Product Search make use ofthe same technology.

If you want to know how Google works, you need to understand the searchingand indexing processes that are at its core. In this chapter, youll get a brief overviewof what makes Google search tick. Lots of other books describe Googles searchcapabilities, so well spare you the details here. (Its not possible to reveal too muchon this topic anyhow, because Google keeps its precise searching and ranking tech-nologies a closely guarded secret.) What is of real interest to you at this point islearning how to take the first step in integrating Googles business services into yourown operation: signing up for a Google Account.

Googling the Web: What Makes Google So SuccessfulAs you can tell from the title of this section, Google, like Frisbee and Kleenex, hasbecome a household name. Web surfers everywhere use the word Google to de-scribe the act of searching for something, many times not even realizing (or caring)that there is a powerful company that shares the same name. That works both ways,too; businesses both large and small hope they will be Googled by those sameconsumers, who will go on to find out more about what they have to offer andeventually make a purchase.

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The place to start with Google is to determine how it can help your site becomemore visible on the Web. And the way to understand that is to understand how theGoogle search works. Heres an overview to give you the gist of it.

1. Googles founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, came up with formulas forindexing the contents of Web pages, storing them in a huge database, andretrieving pages based on keyword searches.

2. Google uses automated programs to scour the contents of Web pages on aregular basis (just how frequently is one of those trade secrets I already men-tioned). The programs record the contents of many pages and the URLs andstore them in a database.

3. You, the end user, type a word or phrase like Irish dancing into Googlessearch box and click the search button. When you do this, a program is acti-vated on Googles servers. The program searches the pages that have alreadybeen stored in the database. Thats right: when you click the search button onGoogles home page or in the Google Toolbar, you are searching Googlesdatabase of Web pages, not the live Web itself.

4. Google compiles a set of search results ranked in the order of highest rele-vance to your search. Its Googles system of page rankingof determiningwhich items are on the top on the first page of the resultsthats as notable asanything in this system.

As an end user, you already know how the search system works: it helps you findWeb pages that contain information youre looking for. But Going Google meansyou want to make use of the system from the standpoint of someone who wants todo better business. You can take advantage of the system of keyword searches andpage rankings to achieve the business objectives outlined in the sections that follow.

Objective 1: Making Your Business Easier to FindOne way you can manipulate Googles search system is to make your online businessmore visible. For many businesses, the primary goal is to be ranked higher than theother entries in a search for a given set of keywords. For example, my brother Mikehas gone to great pains to improve his search engine ranking for his Web site Lp2CD-Solutions, in which he restores old vinyl LP records and converts them to CD format.There are a number of competitors in this field, and a search for the phrase term LPto CD restoration finds his site (http://www.lp2cdsolutions.com) second from thetop of the first page (see Figure 2-1). And as he will tell you, once you end up on thefirst page of a set of Google results you get far more visits. That results in moreinquiries from interested parties and, ultimately, more sales.

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15SEARCHING AND FINDING: GETTING STARTED WITH GOOGLE

Figure 2-1. You can leverage Googles database to improve your Web sites visibility.

Objective 2: Working SmarterKnowledge of up-to-the-minute business trends and news is important for anyonewho needs to make business decisions. By searching Googles many specialty searchsites, such as its News area, you can look up critical facts and figures and back upyour business reports. Not only that, but by scouring Google Trends, which presentsreports based on recent searches of Googles storehouse of information, you get anidea of what shoppers are interested in online.

Objective 3: Improving Your Web PresentationYou can create your own Web site with Google, and youll find out how to use itsPage Creator service in Chapter 11. The Warehouse Department of Paper Mart, afamily-owned packaging store in Los Angeles, was able to create a simple Web pageand link it to the companys main Web site. The page describes any job openings inthe departmentor, in the case of the page shown in Figure 2-2, the fact that thereare no job openings.

The Web pages you create will get more attention if your site contains useful andtimely content. The information sources mentioned in the preceding section can helpyou with the content in the main body of your Web page. You can enhance your pagecontent by adding gadgets such as a display of the current date and time or aminiature search box to your site so your visitors can search Google, for example.You can add the current time and weather, as well as maps. You can even add acalendar showing upcoming events related to your company or your interests.

Objective 4: Advertising Your BusinessWhen you understand how keywords and good writing can help your Web site gainbetter exposure on Google search results, you can use the same system to write ads

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Figure 2-2. Page Creator helps you create a simple yet effective business Web site.

that gain more attention for your business on Google AdWords. AdWords is a suc-cessful program for delivering targeted cost-per-click ads alongside Google searchresults. By including critical keywords in your ads and placing bids on each one, youcan increase the chances that your ad will appear in a prominent positionagain,near the top of the first search results page. That is the best way to get visitors whoare looking for what you have to sell to click on them and check out what you haveto offer. Find out more about AdWords in Chapter 5.

Selling Your Products or ServicesYou probably dont realize it, but some of Googles online services provide you withchannels where you can list tangible consumer goods or professional services youwant to sell to the public. Google Base gives you a way to list items for sale in aclassified ad format much like the popular Craigslist sites provide. You can also createa file of your catalog sales descriptions and submit them to Googles Product Search

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search service for retail goods. You can even send electronic versions of your printedsales catalogs to Google Catalogs so that shoppers can flip through the pages usingtheir Web browsers, clicking through to your Web site if they want to complete apurchase. Youll find out more about such services in Chapters 14 and 15.

Getting the Word Out

Every business wants to stand out from the crowd, and all those who offer a servicewant to share their expertise with interested readers. Google gives writers, publishers,and marketers alike a range of forums where they can get their expertise and theirexperience before the general public. By posting a blog on Googles Blogger service(http://www.blogger.com), you gain the ability to get your words online instantly andto update them on a regular basis. You can also post sales descriptions, recipes,instruction manuals, and reams of customer service information to Google Base(http://base.google.com). Not only do you get published, but also your words areindexed and included in Googles search databases so people can find them moreeasily. (See Chapter 13 for more details about Blogger, and Chapter 15 for GoogleBase.)

Google offers many more services to businesses; the ones mentioned in this partof the chapter are those that make use of Googles search methodology and its seem-ingly limitless database of Web pages. No matter which Google service you choose,you need to start the same way: signing up for an account with Google will enableyou to use any of its services.

Obtaining a Google Account

Before you can sign up for any Google service, from Gmail to Google Apps, youneed to obtain a Google Account: a username and password youll use to log ontothe site. If you only use Google as a consumer of informationfor search, for findingnews stories, for reading newsgroup messagesyou dont need an account. But if youwant to take advantage of any of the business services, you need to sign in.

Google Accounts start out simple, but things get more complicated as you signup for more services and move onto the suite of applications called Google Apps. Ifyou prepare accounts for your colleagues so they can share a calendar and other fileswith youand thats the whole point of Google Appsyouve suddenly got a wholehandful of e-mail addresses and passwords to maintain. There are a few general prin-ciples you need to keep in mind:

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If you sign up only for Gmail, your e-mail address is your account username.You have a single username and password.

If you sign up for Google Apps, you have to obtain a domain name. You getan e-mail address that is part of that domain name: for instance, I have thedomain literarymidwest.com, and the e-mail address is [email protected]. However, [email protected] is not the username for my GoogleApps account: that is [email protected]. Its another example of themultiple e-mail addresses you might have to maintain when you start usingmultiple Google services.

Beware of being logged into several services at once so that multiple windowsare open. That can cause Google to get confused. If youre logged in with oneusername with one service and you try to sign in with another username toaccess another service with the same computer, you might be prevented fromdoing so. You need to sign out of one account before signing in to another.

Note: You dont need to proliferate Google Accounts if you sign up for,say, Google Apps, Google Base, AdWords, AdSense, and so on. In theory,you can use the same username and password for all these services. Butif you sign up at different times or if someone in your office signs up forone service and you sign up for another, it is possible to end up with twoor more accounts for the same thing. This isnt a problem unless you mixup or forget your passwords, as I am prone to do occasionally.

Your username, in fact, will take the form of your e-mail address when you start usingGmail or another Google business service. So give some thought to the account nameyoull choose: if you plan to use Google Apps for business purposes, you want youraccount name to look businesslike rather than playful or mischievous. Dontchoose a username like Deedlebop, which might result in an inappropriate namelike [email protected]. For personal use, [email protected] be fine. But I recommend that you use your own first and last name if you setup a Google domain for your business. If your name is Lucy Evans, your usernamewould be lucy.evans. This would give you the e-mail address like [email protected].

While you can set up your Google account using a pre-existing email address, andthen set up a Gmail address later, you can also take a shortcut by setting up aGmail account first. This will automatically create a Google account for you, and it

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allows you to sidestep the process of creating both separately. Since I personally feelthat simply creating a Gmail account is the most logical course of action, assumingyou ever plan on having one at any point in the future, Ill list the instructions forthis option first.

Follow these steps to obtain a Google Account and sign up for Gmail:

1. Go to the Gmail home page (http://mail.google.com).

2. Click the Sign up for Gmail link, which appears in the blue box below theblank fields for entering Email and Password.

3. Type your first and last names in the Firstname and Lastname fields.Note that it doesnt need to be your real name on your ID card; Google isntgoing to check it.

4. In the box next to Desired Login Name, type a simple, easy to remember wordthat will serve as the first part of your Google Mail (Gmail) address. This isthe part of the address that will appear before gmail.com. If you use twowords, you may want to follow the common convention of separating them bya dot (.) or the hyphen character. (Following this convention makes it clearto visitors exactly what your first and last names are.) Click the check availabil-ity button to see if the name you want is available; if not, try a different nameor choose one of the options Google suggests. Remember that suggestive orfunny names might give you a chuckle now but could be a problem later on ifyou use them to apply for a job, or to correspond with your college professoror supervisor, for instance.

5. Fill in the rest of the page, and click the I accept. Create my account button atthe bottom of the page.

Be sure to choose a strong password as described in the sidebar below.One of the most important elds you can ll out in this form is onethat is easy to ignore: Secondary email. I urge you to enter a valid e-mailaddress here. Having lost my own password, I can tell you that havinga secondary e-mail address recorded with your account information isimportant: Google uses the address to send you password reset infor-mation.

6. An email verification page appears stating that a mail message has been sentto the e-mail address you entered at the top of the registration form. When the

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message arrives, click the link included in the message to verify your ac-countif everything works correctly you should go to your new account.

Once your account is verified, you should now be able to sign into your accountat the Google Home Page (http://www.google.com), or at the Gmail page, (http://mail.google.com).

Choosing Passwords that Pass the Test

Passwords are always important. But with a Web site such as Google that providesbusiness applications, choosing a strong password is even more critical. Youre trustingGoogle to keep your e-mail secure. If you store shared text or nancial_les onlinethrough Googles Docs and & Spreadsheets application (see Chapter 7), you obviouslyneed to protect those les. If they contain personal information, identity theft be-comes a real concern for individuals who do business with you. Choose a passwordthat:

Is not a recognizable word in the dictionary Contains a mixture of characters, numerals, and possibly punctuation marks Mixes both capital and lowercase letters Does not contain a birthday, address, or other recognizable numberand espe-cially not your social security number.

Has six or more characters: Six to eight characters is good because it is easy toremember.

Is something that will stick in your mind, such as an acronym. You can turn thephrase Google Is My Business Applications Host into gImbAh. If you then add anumber, it becomes gImbAh29, for instance.

Googles security measures can be undone not only by a weak password but alsoby bad password management. Never write your password on a piece of paper thatcould be lost. Whats even worse is keeping your password near your computer,especially taping it to your monitor. Never give your password out to someone whocould misuse it. Do everything you can to guard your password so no one can gainaccess to your information without your knowledge or approval.

Once you have a Gmail e-mail address, you can use it to sign up for anotherservice, such as Google Talk. Heres how to sign up for a Google Account using apre-existing email address:

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1. Go to the Google Home Page (http://www.google.com).

2. Click the Sign in link at the top right hand corner of the page.

3. When the page refreshes and the blue login box appears, click the Create anaccount now link. The Create an Account page appears.

4. Type your current e-mail address in the box required: this can be a Gmailaddress or another Google address, such as one you assign yourself if you haveGoogle Apps.

Entering your Gmail address is a good option because you need to typea valid e-mail addressone that you can check easily, as opposed to anexpired e-mail address or one you dont have access to for some reason.If you are using Google for your ofce and you want the new service tobe connected to other business services you have previously obtainedfrom Google, sign in with your Google Apps e-mail and password.

5. Fill in the rest of the fields on the page, read the Terms of Service, and clickthe button at the bottom of the page.

6. In some cases you can start using your service when you gain access to itshome pagethe Google Apps home page, for instance. In other cases youllneed to check your e-mail for a message from Google welcoming you to thenew service. The message contains a link youll need to click in order to com-plete the signup process and start using the service. You can now log into youraccount at the Google home page or the home page of the service you wantto set up.

In this chapter, you examined the core activity that makes most, if not all, of Googlesother services possibleits system for searching and indexing contents of networkeddocuments, and of ranking relevant pages in response to a keyword search. Youlearned how that system can help you take advantage of Googles business applica-tions. You also took the first step in Going Googlesigning up for Gmail and obtain-ing a Google Account. In the next chapter, youll start to establish goals andobjectives for running your business with Google so you can take advantage of thefeatures mentioned in this chapter.

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C H A P T E R 3

Goals for Google-izingYour Business

If youre a small business owner or manager, youre used to setting goals and drawingup plans to achieve them. It makes sense to do the same with Google. How do youdecide which Google services to choose? People considering this question usuallybegin by going to the More Google Products page (http://www.google.com/intl/en/options) and scanning the long list of available services. That way, you can pick theones that seem useful to you on an a la carte basis. You dont necessarily give a lotof thought to your business objectives for doing so. The fact is that a little advanceplanning can make your effort to incorporate Google into your business activitiesmuch more effective and goal-oriented.

One direction small businesses should consider taking is to sign up for a suite ofapplications called Google Apps. Its hard to overestimate the potential impact ofthis suite of productivity applications. For years, businesses have had to throw aroundterms like intranets, extranets, application servers, and hosted applications, all of whichcost thousands of dollars to install, configure, and maintain. Google Apps makes allof these functions available for free. Even if you sign up for the Premium version ofGoogle Apps (described in Chapter 18), the $50 per-user annual fee is far less thanyoud have to pay to install a comparable program, Microsoft Exchange, for instance.

But Google Apps wont do it all. And Google definitely contains many moreservices that will help you work more efficiently. Now Im saying its more effective.But is it really? When you tell your boss or your staff (or even yourself!) that youwant to keep your spreadsheets and word processing files on Google and publishyour catalogs there, they might be surprised. But by touting some of the businessobjectives you can achieve with Googles many services that are described in thischapter, youll be able to make a good business argument.

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23GOALS FOR GOOGLE-IZING YOUR BUSINESS

Improving Your Visibility

For most online businesses, simply being found is half the battle. Google is the new-est and best known single online resource for businesses around. Its the equivalentof running a Super Bowl ad, renting a billboard along a major highway, or puttingyour corporate name on a baseball stadium. When consumers hear the name Google,they remember that its a place to find information. When businesspeople with Websites think of Google, at some point they inevitably ask themselves: How can I getbetter placement on Google? By that they mean that they want their site to appearhigher up in search results. I go into this subject in more detail in Chapter 4.

Increasing Your Advertising Revenue

Some businesses go on the Web with the goal of generating extra income throughadvertising. By creating a Web site that gets a high number of hits (thats Web-speak for visits), they are able to attract advertisers who will pay them to display adson their pages. But things get complicated when youthe busy Web site owner andbusinesspersonhave to negotiate who will place the ads, where they will appear,what size and format will be used, and how youll get paid. Google handles that foryou through its AdSense programand at the same time, ensures that the ads youdisplay will complement your own content. Youll find out more in Chapter 12.

Collaborating More Effectively

In todays global economy, many companies have branch offices around the worldor contractors who work from far-flung locations. Getting everyone in the same placefor staff meetings can be costly when it comes to the time spent traveling and moneyspent on transportation costs. Establishing a business presence with Gmail, GoogleApps, and Google Page Creator gives employees a way to keep in touch and sharefiles, no matter where they are physically located. A Google Apps site gives col-leagues a place to access word processing and spreadsheet documents.

Collaboration is also fostered not only by having a virtual workspace online,courtesy of Google, but by having a single way to access Googles e-mail, spreadsheet,word processing, and other business applications: a Web browser. Once you are ableto do all of your workincluding e-mailwith your browser, you can work from any-where. It doesnt matter whether you are using a Macintosh or Windows computer,whether you have Microsoft Office installed, or if you have Office, whether you use

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Office 2003 or 2007. Your Web browser lets you get the work done. Some of thebenefits of the Google-ized collaboration model are described below.

Behind the Scenes: The Client-Server System

Youll get a better understanding of Google Appsand all of Googles online services,in factif you think of the client-server system. Imagine that Google is the server, andyou and your individual Web browser are the client, which connects to Google to getinformation or perform functions like sending and receiving e-mail or reading newsheadlines.

The whole Internet, in fact, is built around the client-server system. The net-worked information made available on the Web is on computers that are connected tothe Net and that are designed to serve les or applications; neither you nor yourofce must be connected all the time to exchange messages and les. (Its great ifyour ofce has a high-speed connection called a T-1 or T-3 line; its just not manda-tory.)

For example, if you are working outside the ofce, both you and the company cancommunicate by sending e-mail messages or les to a central server that is alwaysavailable, such as the mail server or Web server operated by your Internet provider oryour service provider (in this case, Google). An e-mail message you send to someonein your ofce is stored on the server until that individual connects from a coffee shopor library and retrieves the message later. You can also upload a le to your Docs &Spreadsheets (D & S) space on Googles server. Someone in the ofce can connect tothe same D & S site and download the le at their convenience.

The client-server system is always present on the Web. Normally when you are onthe Internet you access a Web page stored on someone elses Web server with yourclient program, your browser. In the case of Google Apps, your client browser can nowaccess your pages, les, spreadsheets, and other records that you have stored onGoogles application servers.

Streamlining CommunicationsUsing Google as a central communications point helps you connect more efficientlywith coworkers and business colleagues. You can exchange e-mail, communicate inreal time using chat or conferencing software, or post messages on company bulletinboards. Your Google Start Page (see Chapter 12) gives you and your coworkers asingle point of access to both your companys business data and to fellow employees.So rather than having to e-mail files to one another or be physically present in theoffice so you can log into the companys file server, you can browse to Google and

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log in from your hotel room. You can then post your files online through Docs &Spreadsheets and even discuss them while youre viewing them by typing instantmessages to one another. In the early days of the Web, there was much talk aboutintranetsinternal networks that used Web technologies to share data within work-group members. Googles services point toward a new and more efficient way ofcommunicating. Being able to store data not on your own servers but on Googlessaves you the expense, maintenance, and need to upgrade the necessary machines in-house. Its also very helpful to be able to use Googles e-mail and chat clients to shareinformation if you already have one of the applications open and want to send a fileto the person with whom youre communicating; you dont have to connect to GoogleApps and move the file to your shared space, but can send it immediately from withinthe application youre using.

Increasing Your MobilityConnecting to the Internet in general, and to Google in particular, enlarges yourworld. That applies to the world of work, too. When your office is online, you donthave to physically be on the premises to exchange messages, share files, and compareschedules with your coworkers. With a computer and modem at home or on theroad, you can communicate with the home office by e-mail, fax from your computer,FTP, chat, or a number of other alternatives. Google gives you an even greater levelof freedom: you dont have to worry about whether you use a Mac or a PC, whetheryou use Fetch or Cute FTP for file transfers, or Thunderbird or Outlook Express fore-mail. By using Google, you get a uniform interface to information. And its free:you dont have to pay a monthly fee to an Internet Service Provider for e-mail service.As long as you can get access to the Net at school, at work, in a public library, orother location, you can access your free Google e-mail and file sharing services.

But moving some of your business communications online with Google gives youa new set of options that go beyond simple e-mail messages. For example, one trendin the American workforce is the increased use of contingent workerstemps, part-timers, and freelancers. By collaborating through Google, it is possible to make as-signments to subcontractors and with employees who work out of their homes orother offices. Using Gmail, Talk, or other applications, you can exchange schedules,transfer files, and work on projects collaboratively. Its faster and cheaper than long-distance phone calls or courier services.

Its all about being open to adopting new business strategies. When employeeshave new ways to communicate, their entire way of doing business shifts. E-mailconversations that go on for days and that are spread out over ones crowded emailinbox can be complicated and difficult to track. With Gmail, your conversations are

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grouped together so that the back-and-forth with a particular individual can be viewedin one place, for instance. If you are in a hurry and the correspondent is online, youcan open a chat window and talk to that person immediately by typing messages,without incurring long-distance phone charges. Forums like Google Groups help fos-ter a many-to-many community atmosphere, which has promoted customer loyalty,expanded the outreach of companies to new global markets, and increased produc-tivity.

Tip: Instead of working in isolation, employees should ideally sharedata and collaborate as colleagues. Your want to make sure the dif-ferent parts of your company will talk to one another and work to-gether. Resistance will cause your efforts to integrate the Internetinto your daily business operations to fall short of expectations.

If you and your business colleagues who work in different locations need to shareimages in order to develop projects or do collaborative problem-solving, the Internetgives you a variety of options. You dont have to use expensive conferencing centersor set up leased lines in order to conduct virtual meetings. You can share your imageswith Picasa. When you use conferencing software such as Google Talk to literallytalk with your own voice through a microphone and headphones connected to yourcomputer, you no longer have to make expensive long-distance phone calls. All areoptions to consider if you need to cut back on travel and telecommunications ex-penses.

Achieving More Efficient Workflow

Reducing paperwork and increasing effective communication were essential businessgoals long before the Internet became a household word. An increased sense of beingin a world community joined by network technology, however, has heightened com-petition and increased pressure on businesses to work efficiently. When workers indeveloping nations like India and China are competing for work on a level playingfield, businesspeople in older industrialized nations need to do everything possible toimprove speed and eliminate duplication of efforts. Whether youre a lone entrepre-neur or a business manager, you need to be aware of new technologies that canincrease not only profits but also the efficiency of day-to-day administration.

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Free software like Google Docs & Spreadsheets has the potential to change theway work takes place in offices around the world. Everyone needs to type letters andreports on their computers, and most businesses need to keep track of financial re-cords using spreadsheet applications. Since personal computers first gained wide-spread acceptance in the 1980s, their users have had to download and install softwareprograms to perform these functions. As new versions of the software are releasedwith better features, those same individuals need to purchase updates and installthem as well. When new computers are purchased there is often a different operatingsystem involved, so new versions of the software need to be obtained.

Youre probably quite familiar with the process of making sure you have the diskspace and processing power needed to run the programs you buy. And chances areyou use some version of the most popular business application around, MicrosoftOffice. Instead of having to pay hundreds of dollars per user (depending on theversion of Office you typically use) to install or update the program every few years,Google provides you with a new and exciting alternative: using common applicationsby connecting to them online. Google Apps is an example of an approach to deliver-ing computer programs known either as software as a service or hosted applica-tions. Instead of installing a word processing spreadsheet, a calendar, and anotherapplication that will consume disk space on your computer, you use your Webbrowser as the interface to those applications. Google Apps has Google poised totake on Microsoft and directly challenge its dominance in the business productivityarea. Youll find out more about Google Apps in Chapter 6, and about many of thecomponents of this suite of applications in subsequent chapters.

Strengthening Your Marketing Pull

By going online with Google, you increase the number of potential customers youcan reach. The Internet gives you access to new leads and markets worldwide. Accessto the Internet is now a necessity, and businesses are performing ever more functionsonline. Internet communication technologies such as Web pages, e-mail, bulletinboards, videoconferencing, and chat can help you find new business partners.

Heres an example: the Cato Institute, a nonprofit public policy research founda-tion in Washington, D.C., hosts a variety of public events such as talks and discus-sions held by well-known figures. Go to the Institutes Events page (http://www.cato.org/events/calendar.html), and you can view a list of upcoming talks andother gatherings. Each of the descriptions shown in Figure 3-1 includes a GoogleCalendar button at the bottom (as well as buttons for other popular calendars byMicrosoft and Yahoo!).

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Figure 3-1. Your organization can use Google Calendar to help promote your upcoming events.

Click the Google Calendar button, and your browser jumps to your default calen-dar space on Google. You open a form that contains automatically entered informa-tion about the upcoming event and its schedule. Click Options, and you can tellGoogle to e-mail you a reminder. In Figure 3-2, Im specifying that a reminder will besent to me 30 minutes before the event takes place.

Does the Google Calendar button attract more attendees to the event? It might,especially if those attendees are sent automatic reminders so they dont forget. Itsalso a subtle nudge on the part of the savvy Web business that to attract increasinglybusy professionals, you need to provide them with all the tools they need, and increas-ingly, that includes Googles business applications.

Research More Efficiently

Google wont come out and tell you what to say in your blog or on your Web page.The general topic is up to you. It might give you some ideas about what to say,

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Figure 3-2. You can tell Google to e-mail you an automatic reminder about your newly scheduledevent.

however, and it can also provide you with some add-ons that will make your site moreworthy of repeat visits.

First, theres Googles News service (http://news.google.com, shown in Figure3-3). At this writing, the site had just released a feature that enables anyone with ahistorical question to search news archives for stories going back several decades.For anyone wanting to answer a question or prepare a more accurate report, sucharchives are a gold mine of information.

A variety of other specialty services will save you the time that you would havespent trudging to the library or making phone calls to research centers:

Book Search. This service (http://books.google.com) lets you search the fulltext of many books.

Blog Search. If you are trying to gauge current opinions and the zeitgeist,try this service. It searches the text of the many online Web logs, otherwiseknown as blogs (http://blogsearch.google.com/).

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Figure 3-3. Googles news service can help back up your business research.

Finance. This site (http://finance.google.com/finance) specializes in stock re-ports and business news.

Patent Search. Search (http://www.google.com/patents) the text of patents tosee whos in competition with you for that innovative product youre devel-oping.

Specialty Searches. If youre looking for information limited to a specific topic,you might find it here (http://www.google.com/options/specialsearches-.html). You can search through government Web sites as well as those ofApple or Microsoft.

Streamlining Administrative Functions

Many businesses handle essential administrative tasks such as payroll, training, andmaintenance online. You can avoid expensive purchase orders and cut down on pa-

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perwork by ordering goods from suppliers through Gmail or through Google Apps.If you set up an account for a trusted supplier, that companys representative cansend orders directly to your Google Apps workspace by logging in with a passwordyou issue to them and uploading (a techie term for transferring) the file using GoogleApps user-friendly tools. Security is definitely a concern, however. First, Googleprotects you in two ways: it restricts access to shared Google Apps workspaces andyou need to guard your passwords and account information closely if you plan topublish information online that you dont want the whole world to see. Even if youor your colleagues do upload information to Google Apps, you have a second levelof protection: you have to specifically share each file with selected individuals; other-wise, theyll only be seen by the people who upload them.

Some larger companies convert their entire operations to make use of Internettechnologies like e-mail, file sharing by means of intranets (internal networks that useWeb browsers to give access to information). They order supplies from electroniccatalogs, create vertical portals, set up employee intranets, and more. They spendmillions of dollars installing proprietary software such as Microsoft Exchange, as wellas setting up complex servers to manage information. Google is revolutionizing thisby making the same technologies like shared workspaces, applications like calendars,spreadsheets, and word processors, available online for free, taking them out of theprovince of technical experts and organizations with deep pockets and makingthem available to everyone.

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P A R T IIUsing Google to Search

and Be Found

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C H A P T E R 4

Improving Google SearchResults

When I scan the message boards of services that host Web sites for small businesses,one of the most common topics is this: How do I get my site to show up onGoogle? By showing up on Google, the site owners mean that they want theirpages to appear near the top of a set of search results. Lets say that you have createda site focusing on bird cages, and your site turns up on page 56 of a set of 80 pagesof results. Few, if any, dedicated bird lovers are going to dig that far into a set ofpages. In my experience, you need to get on the first one or two pages to have anychance that someone will click through to your site and make a purchase. The HolyGrail for many online businesspeople is a ranking right at the top of the first page ofGoogles search resultsor, barring that, to appear somewhere on the first page ofsearch results.

The practice of optimizing your content to get the best placement in Googlessearch results is so common that it has been given its own name: search engineoptimization (SEO). Googles exact formula for ranking pages in a set of searchresults is a closely guarded secret, but enough of it is known that you can followsome relatively simple, low-tech practices to improve your pages rank. The increasedattention that comes from being on page one of a set of Google search results in theform of Web site visits is both effective and cost-effective. Its something you can doyourself for little or no money. But yet its among the most important ways in whichGoogle can help small businesses. Heres how it works.

A Mathematical Formula for Success

Googles exact formula for determining search result rankings is a complex algorithm.Its partly mathematical, and partly based on many factors that indicate how active

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36 USING GOOGLE TO SEARCH AND BE FOUND

and how popular a site isin other words, how valuable it is as a resource. Googlecontinually re-indexes the Web, and ignores sites that are considered dead. Adead site is one that hasnt been updated for a long time and that doesnt receivemany (or any) visits. To avoid ending up dead in Internet terms, you need to updateyour site regularly by changing some content.

For instance, if you publish a blog online using Google Blogger (see Chapter 13),you only have to make an entry every week (or better yet, every day) to keep yoursite fresh. Otherwise, make a commitment to change somethinganythingon yoursite every week or so. This can be something as insignificant as the last updateddate at the bottom of your Web page, or as significant as the page title. One Web sitedeveloper who is related to me explained that every week or two, he goes through hissite page by page and rewrites headings and other text just so his site will be newwhen Google does its re-indexing. Just add a bit of information as often as you canto improve your search results. Of course keeping the cobwebs off your site is a goodpractice just to keep your visitors coming back to you on a regular basis.

Search Engine RankingsThe idea behind the desire for favorable search engine placement is probably borneout by your own experience. The whole point of doing a search on Google is toobtain a set of search results that you can scan. If youre like me, your tendency is tostart clicking on links that are near the top of the first page because they are eithermost relevant to what youre looking for or they exactly match what youre seeking.Your job as a Web site owner or business marketer is to get your own site as close aspossible to the top of the first page of results when someone does a search for prod-ucts, services, or topics that match your own.

There are two simple and practical ways you can improve your search engineranking: (1) submitting your site for inclusion in Googles directory and (2) exchang-ing links with other Web sites.

Tip: There are online businesspeople whose particular goal is to in-crease their links to other sites. These networks are called Like Ex-changes. If you want to participate, simply access the GoogleDirectory: to GoGoogles home page (www.google.com), click the linkmore, click the link even more in the popup menu that appears, andwhen the More Google Products page appears, click Directory. Thengo to this category: Computers Internet Web Design and Devel-opment Promotion Link Popularity Reciprocal Links. Youll

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37IMPROVING GOOGLE SEARCH RESULTS

nd a long list of Web sites that will match you up with link part-ners. Make sure to approach sites that arent direct competitors,but that offer products and services that complement your own.

Playing the Keyword GameA keyword is a word or phrase that someone enters in the search box provided byGoogle or another search service. The user submits the keywords to the site, and asophisticated computer program scours a database that the service has compiled. Thedatabase consists of some of the contents of every page on the Web that the searchservices automated computer program, called a spider, has been able to index. Theexact operations of the spiders, the databases, and the means by which individualpages and contents are culled from the database are a closely-kept secret. But oneGoogle employee, Matt Cutts, wrote in 2003 (at http://www.mattcutts.com/blog) thatGoogle moved from a system in which the database was updated once a month toonce a day.

What does this all mean for you? When you design your Web pages, its importantto keep them updated. Its just as important to sprinkle the keywords your customersor clients are most likely to enter in prominent locations on your pages. Those loca-tions include:

Each pages title bar. This area at the very top of the browser window is be-lieved to be indexed by Google: the search program doesnt scan an entireWeb page but only indicators such as the title that describe its subject orcontents.

Headings. The headings at the top of your page are important because itsbelieved Googles automated indexing programs dont scour the entire con-tents of Web pages. The theory is that the ones that count are only the biggestheadings (the ones labeled H1 or Heading 1 by the Web editing programsused to create those pages) and those near the top.

The first paragraph or two. Most Web sites spell out their mission or providea summary of their contents at the top of the home page, and this is regardedas an important location for keywords by those who study search engine opti-mization.

Tip: Dont worry about terms like at, is, or, a, or the; these areignored by search engines. Focus on nouns and verbs that describe

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your sites contents. If you need suggestions of keywords that arerelated to what you sell or promote on your Web site, do a free searchat Wordtracker (http://www.wordtracker.com). This popular service(which includes a paid version with many more suggestions) providesyou with a list of likely keywords based on your sites content. (SeeChapter 5 for more about Wordtracker.)

The words Google is believed to . . . are used in the preceding list because, as Imentioned earlier, Googles exact formula for making searches relevant and accurateis secret. However, you get a glimpse into some elements of Googles method whenyou look at Googles patent application, which it filed with the U.S. Patent and Trade-mark Office (USPTO) in December 2003. The application contains a list of 63 crite-ria that will be used in evaluating search ranking. According to the document Googleassigns each page is a numeric figure called a PageRank, which is determined byfactors such as these:

How frequently the pages contents are retrieved as a result of search queries.

The number of new pages that are added to the site, or that are linked to thepage being retrieved.

The amount of text or photos that are changed on the site.

The length of time the page has been online.

The time that passes between changes to the page; the more frequently thepage changes, the higher its PageRank number.

When you take the 63 factors (or at least the ones you can absorb most easily) intoaccount, you will probably write and design your pages differently than you havebeen in order to improve your own page rankings. Make sure your titles arent blankor that they contain a generic word such as Home or About Us. Make sure they haveat least one or two keywords in the visible content of your Web page that describewho you are and what you do. Both the title and keywords can be controlled invirtually any Web page editing program. Microsofts latest Web editor, ExpressionWeb, uses the dialog box shown in Figure 4-1 to specify the pages title. In addition,you can also add keywords and a brief description to the HTML code for your page.

The keywords and description dont appear in the body of your Web page that isactually visible to anyone with a Web browser. It remains in the code, behind the

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Figure 4-1. Take a moment to add keywords to your title in your Web editing software.

scenes, where it can be read by one of those automated spider programs that indexyour pages. The keywords (in theory) help make your site more visible; the descrip-tion is incorporated into the brief description that appears when your site is added toa set of search results. In fact, many Web site owners who pursue SEO techniques toimprove search rankings realize that adding keywords to the Web page code for apage doesnt affect rank much, if at all; the factors listed in Googles patent applica-tion and elsewhere in this chapter, such as links, updates, page history, and searches,carry more weight when it comes to page rank.

Besides creating page titles, try to build important keywords into critical areas ofyour site, as described elsewhere in this chapter. And make an effort to commityourself to a schedule whereby you update your site regularly. Make sure the linksyou make to your pages and from your pages to other sites are valid (in other words,they dont lead to dead or nonexistent pages).

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Tip: The Google PageRank patent application can be found by doinga search for its application number, 0050071741, USPTOs Web site(www.uspto.gov).

Adding Your Site to the Google Directory

Unlike the philosophy that if you pad your essays in creative writing class youll geta better grade, length here is not your friend. If your descriptions are too long, theywont fit in the search results. You make sure that what will actually be seen is amessage that you want to get across. Here, control is the name of the game. If youcompose your own description for submission rather than waiting for Googles spi-ders to index your site, you can be the one to decide exactly what appears in thesearch results. One option is to compose your Web site description jut the way youwant it, and to submit it to the Google Directory.

The Google Directory is a style index to the contents of the Internet. With a stylethat is similar to Yahoo!, it is arranged by category. Most people access Googlesdatabase of Web sites by using its well-known search page, which is also the siteshome page. To find the Directory, you first need to access the site. Go to the homepage, click More, and click Even More. When the More Google Products page ap-pears, click Directory under the heading Search.

You can also take advantage of a simple and perhaps more practical approach togetting your Web site before the eyes of potential visitors: add your URL to theGoogle Directory. You do this by accessing Googles form for submitting a Web pageURL to the directory (http://www.google.com/addurl). The form is shown in Figure4-2.

You have two options for adding a description to Googles directory (or Yahoo!s,or any other directory, for that matter). You can submit your description to Googleas described in the preceding paragraph. You can also add a description to the HTMLcode for your Web pages What does it mean to add your description to the HTMLcode? Every Web page consists of a visible set of contents (text, colors, rules, andimages) that appear in a Web browser window, and the underlying markup that tellsa browser how to format a pages contents. The underlying markup is written in alanguage such as HTML (HyperText Markup Language). The HTML code for a pageis a text file formatted with a file extension such as .htm or .html so a browser knowsthat its a Web page file and that the contents need to be formatted accordingly.

An HTML file consists primarily of commands like this:

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Figure 4-2. Fill out this form and submit it to Googles directory.

bFormat this sentence in bold./b

The b and /b commands describe to a browser what is supposed to bebold. In addition, a markup file can contain text that is not intended to be displayedin a browser window and that does not appear on a Web page. For instance, youmight see comments left by the pages author, like this:

!--This document was created by Martin Smith using Expression Web 1.0 --

Another type of content is bit of META information. Such information is onlymeant to be interpreted by a browser or another program (such as an indexing pro-gram used by Google or another search engine). Some META commands can enclosekeywords associated with your Web page, or a description that tells a search engineexactly how to describe it. For example:

meta namedescription contentThis is a web site devoted to the care

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and feeding of parrots. Our ne feathered friends and their owners will ndfood and custom toys, and other parrot owners with whom they can discusstheir favorite pets!

Whether you embed your Web page in a META command in your pages HTMLor whether you submit it to Googles directory, in either case you get a chance tocharacterize your site the way you want to present it. You can be businesslike, or youcan be irreverent. Suppose you create a Web site devoted to parrots and parrot toys.You want your site to be distinguishable from Jimmy Buffets Parrot Head fan club,or any other organizations that use the name Parrots, such as baseball teams. Youcan create a description of the site in a set of search results; the description thatappears reads like this:

A Web site intended for parrot lovers. Includes custom-made parrot toys andhouses.

The point is that if you take a proactive approach to search listings, you cancontrol how your site is described in those results. That way, youll get the visitorswho are actually looking for what you have to offer and who are more likely to makea purchase, send in an inquiry, or perform another action.

It Pays to Be Popular

Youve heard the saying that more leads to more, and heres another case in point.Googles engine is partial to sites that have frequent updates as well as those that getlots of hits. Just adding keywords and descriptions to your Web pages wont necessar-ily result in a good ranking. Being popular, however, has nothing to do with getting adate for Saturday night. From the search index programs point of view, popularity isdefined as a lot of links being made to a page.

No Web site exists in a vacuum. Every site contains hypertext links that leadvisitors from one location on a page to another or to another page, image, or filesomewhere on the Web or even on your own computer network. Google gives a goodpage rank to a site that contains lots of valuable, valid links to other sites A valid linkis one that is accurate: the link goes to an actual Web page rather than one that isunder construction or that has moved because the Web address has changed. Avaluable link is a link to a site that has many other sites pointing to it. It turns outthat on the Web, as in other areas of life, being well connected matters. In this

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case, a page that has lots of connections to other pages is seen by Google as vital andworthy of a prominent place in search results.

One way to improve both the quantity and quality of the links on your Web pagesis to contact other sites and ask them to link to you.

A useful approach is to look for sites that have products and services that comple-ment yours. You should then approach the owners of those sites and ask to exchangelinks: Ill publicize your site if you publicize mine.

Selecting Business Content for Google

Not all of the business content you publish online is for public consumption. Youmight not want search services like Google to index certain pages. You can block asearch indexing program from including all of your Web pages or just selected ones.

You include a simple text file named robots.txt.

Identify the automated program you want to block, or the pages on your sitethat you dont want indexed.

Post this text file on your Web site. Google itself provides instructions forpeople who want to block indexing programs at http://www.google.com/sup-port/webmasters/bin/answer.py?answer40362.

Doing It Yourself: Linking to Your Own Web SitesMany enterprising businesspeople increase the linkage associated with their Website by connecting to themselves. They create lots of different Web sites and pointthem to one another, creating their own mini-network of interconnected pages. Pub-lishing a variety of Web site increases the chances someone will find you simplybecause you have multiple presences online. Having the pages link to one anotheror at least point to a primary Web site lifts all of the sites in page rank.

Lars Hundley, who owns the site Clean Air Gardening (http://www.cleanairgarde-ning) is a real online entrepreneur. One of his Web sites sells environmentally friendlytools such as manual push-type lawn mowers. But he also has a variety of other Websites. As mentioned above, the number of sites that link to your own makes your sitemore valuable in Googles eyes, and improves its search placement. Googles index-ing programs dont know whether you are linking to one of your own Web sites orsomeone elses. Enterprising businesspeople like Lars create multiple Web sites. Bylinking them to one another, each site appears to Google to be well-connectedinother words, with plenty of links to other sites. This improves the Google search

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placement for all sites. In addition, Hundley uses blogs and even the photo-sharingsite Flickr to promote his business. His sites include:

Practical Environmentalist (www.practicalenvironmentalist.com)

Gardening Gift Guide (www.gardeninggiftguide.com), a blog for gardeningproducts that frequently links to and promotes products for sale on Hundleysprimary site, Clean Air Gardening.

Compost Guide (http://compostguide.com/info).

Flickr (http://www.flickr.com/photos/cleanairgardening). Hundley posts pho-tos of satisfied customers happily pushing his lawn mowers or using othertools they have purchased from him on this site. The Flickr page contains alink back to Clean Air Gardening.

The best way to get a good ranking on Google, however, has nothing to do with links,keywords, and titles: its simply to have a good Web site. The more valuable your siteis and the more frequently you maintain it, the better its rank will be. Thats thegenius of Googles search system: it rewards good behavior with good attention.

Sure there are quite a few non-technical and low-cost strategies you can pursue toimprove your search ranking on Google. But no single activity will function as acure all to take your Web site from the 50th page of a set of search results to thecoveted Page 1 position. You have to try all of these different activities, and keep atit on a regular basis. In the next chapter, youll learn another way in which rolling upyour sleeves and trying some new marketing strategies can pay off for you: by initiat-ing some AdWords paid search campaigns that will gain more attention for your sitein an efficient way.

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C H A P T E R 5

Improving Your Visibilitywith AdWords

Google first became popular and eventually gained widespread acceptance for tworeasons: its search service delivers what it promises, and its free. But Google, likeany business, couldnt give away its services for free indefinitely. Rather than charginga fixed fee for conducting searches, however, Google made a fortune by coming upwith an innovative advertising system called AdWords.

AdWords takes advantage of Googles search technology for delivering contextsensitive ads: ads that match the item that someone is searching for. AdWords en-ables Google to convert its search service to a revenue-generating system, while atthe same time giving anyone the opportunity to set their own fee for displaying theads. The cost-per-click payment system used by Google has largely supplanted theold-fashioned banner advertising system in which Web publishers displayed fixed adson their pages and were paid based on the number of times those ads are viewed.This chapter provides you with a brief introduction to Googles main advertising tooland how you can get started with it to attract more attention for your business.

Understanding AdWords

AdWords (http://adwords.google.com) is the program that comes up with context-sensitive advertisements that appear just above and to the right of search results onGoogle. It gives everyone from lone individuals to big corporations the chance tocompete in a level playing field for the same valuable advertising space. BecauseGoogle is the most popular search service around, and because millions of peopleconduct searches on Google every day, its search results pages are viewed by many.And if you can create an ad that will offer products or services that are similar to, ifnot identical to, what theyre already searching for, its worth pa

Education

Go Google 20 Ways to Reach More Customers